ORACLE ESSENTIALS: ORACLE8 AND ORACLE8I - Softcover

Oracle is an enormous system with myriad technologies, options, and releases. Most users--even experienced developers and database administrators--find it difficult to get a handle on the full scope of the Oracle system. And as each new version of the database is released, users find themselves under increasing pressure to learn about a whole range of new technologies.This book distills the enormous amount of information about what Oracle is, where it came from, and what the latest releases do--and packages it into a compact, easy-to-read volume filled with focused text, illustrations and helpful hints. It explains what's new and important about Oracle's revolutionary releases, Oracle8 (the "object-relational database") and Oracle8i (the "Internet database"). It covers:

• Oracle products, options, and overall architecture
• Installing and running Oracle (creating databases, configuring Net8, starting up and shutting down Oracle)
• Oracle data structures
• Managing Oracle (implementing security, using the Oracle Enterprise Manager, dealing with fragmentation and reorganization, and performing backup and recovery)
• Oracle networking
• Monitoring and tuning
• Multi-user concurrency and online transaction processing (OLTP)
• Special issues for high-availability systems
• Hardware architectures (e.g., SMP, MPP, NUMA) and their impact on Oracle
• Data warehousing
• Distributed databases
• Extensions for Oracle8 and Oracle8i, including the latest Java and web technologies

It also includes an appendix full of references to additional online and offline resources.For new Oracle users, DBAs, developers, and managers, Oracle Essentials provides an invaluable, all-in-one introduction to the full range of Oracle features and technologies. But even if you already have a library full of Oracle documentation and books, you'll find that this compact book is the one you turn to, again and again, as your one-stop, truly essential reference.

Rick Greenwald has been active in the world of computer software for over 15 years, including stints with Data General, Cognos, and Gupta. He is currently an analyst with Oracle Corporation. He has published five books and countless articles on a variety of technical topics and has spoken at conferences and training sessions across six continents. Books include: Oracle Power Objects Developer's Guide , principal author with Kasu Sista and Richard Finklestein (Oracle Press, 1995) Mastering Oracle Power Objects, principal author with Robert Hoskins (O'Reilly & Associates, 1996) Special Edition: Using Oracle Web Server, principal author with many others (Que Publishing, 1997) The Oracle WebDB Bible, principal author with Jim Milbery (IDG Books Worldwide, 1999) Administering Exchange Server, principal author with Walter Glenn (1999) Jonathan Stern has over 11 years of IT experience, including senior positions in consulting, systems architecture, and technical sales. He has in-depth experience with the Oracle RDBMS across all major open systems hardware and operating systems, covering tuning, scaling and parallelism, Parallel Server, high availability, data warehousing, OLTP, object-relational databases, N-tier architectures, and emerging trends such as Java and CORBA. He is the Central USA Technical Team Leader at Ariba, Inc., the leading vendor of electronic commerce solutions for strategic procurement. Previously, he led a team of highly experienced database specialists at Oracle Corporation providing technical depth and strategic assistance to Oracle's largest customers in the North Central USA. Jonathan has authored papers and presented at internal and external conferences on topics such as scaling with Oracle's dynamic parallelism and the role of reorganizing segments in an Oracle database. Robert Stackowiak has worked for 20 years in IT industry related roles that have included software development, management of software development, systems engineering, sales and sales consulting, and business development. He currently is recognized worldwide as a field sales expert in data warehousing at Oracle, and previously was well recognized for his work at IBM's RISC System/6000 Division, Harris Computer Systems, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Bob has spoken at numerous computer related conferences and has conducted briefings with companies based around the world. His papers regarding data warehousing and computer and software technology have appeared in publications such as The Data Warehousing Institute's Journal of Data Warehousing, Informix Tech Notes, and AIXcellence Magazine.